DR-L204 Double Column Tensile Testing Machine Operation
This seven-minute clip is an operation walkthrough of the DR-L204 double column tensile testing machine from Derui, and it covers two setups in one take. It starts with tension: the grips are fitted, the crosshead is brought down under manual control until the specimen is held, and the distance between the two clamping points is measured. The sample record is then entered in the software, the test speed is set, and the test is run. The second half re-rigs the same machine for a bending test and runs it again.
What This Video Shows
The clip is a two-part operation walkthrough rather than a product tour: one specimen run in tension, then the same machine re-rigged and run in bending. It carries auto-generated captions only, so what follows is taken from what the operator says and does on screen.
The tensile setup
▸ The tensile grips go on first. The fixture is located with a pin and pressed up until it is tight, and the grip above is fitted the same way so the two sit in line.
▸ The crosshead is brought down under manual control until the grips take the specimen, and the fixture is closed firmly on it.
▸ The distance between the two clamping points is then measured. In the clip it comes to 50 mm, and that figure is what goes into the software as the gauge length.
▸ The sample record is entered: the width and the thickness of the specimen, with the thickness given in the clip as 3.2 mm.
▸ The test speed goes in next. The clip sets 100, which the operator notes is the value already there by default and can be changed if the job needs another one.
▸ The record is saved and the test is run, and the grips are released once it has finished.
The bending setup
▸ The tensile grips come off first: a bolt is loosened a little and taken out, then the fixtures are swapped for the bending set.
▸ The span is adjusted on the fixture. The clip works to 50 mm, which is reached by moving each support out by 25 mm.
▸ The specimen is laid on the supports so that the loading edge presses on the centre of it.
▸ The test method is switched in the software and the speed is set to 50. The same screen is where the load unit can be changed if the job needs another one.
▸ The sample is entered again, this time as a rectangular section with a width of 13 and a thickness of 3.2.
▸ The loading edge is jogged down with the joystick until it is almost touching the specimen, and the reading is zeroed before the test is started.
The screen and the hand control
The machine is driven from a PC. Across the top of the software window sit the live readouts, with force in kN alongside stress and deformation, and under them a table holds one row per specimen, carrying the shape, the width, the thickness, the test speed and the length for that record. Two buttons in the panel are used to create and to edit a record, and the test method is chosen on the same row. Beside the software there is a hand control: the joystick is what the operator uses to jog the crosshead down by hand, which is how a fixture is brought onto a specimen before a test is started.
DR-L204: What the Product Page Publishes
| Item | Published figure | What it decides when you run the machine |
| Frame capacity | 10 T, with 2 T and 5 T offered as options | The largest load the frame is built for, and so the heaviest specimen you can take to failure on it. |
| Load cell | Transcell, matched to the frame capacity | The sensor the force is measured with, and the part that has to suit both your peak load and your smallest reading. |
| Load accuracy | 0.5 % F.S | The tolerance on the force reading, quoted against full scale, so it is the low-load end that needs watching. |
| Control system | PC based, running the TM 2101 software | Where the sample records, the test method and the curve output live, and what the operator works at in the clip. |
| Motor and drive | Panasonic servo motor with variable speed drive and a ball screw | How the crosshead is moved, and what holds the speed steady while a specimen is under load. |
| Force units | kgf, lbf, N, kN, T and others | The unit shown on the record screen, which is what the operator switches over in the bending half of the clip. |
| Vertical test space | 1100 mm including fixtures | Specimen length plus whichever fixture set is fitted, measured between the two ends of the travel. |
| Horizontal test space | up to 400 mm | The room the bending supports need between them, and the clip's 50 mm span sits well inside it. |
| Test speed | 0.1 to 300 mm/min, adjustable | The crosshead rate, and the range the clip's two settings of 100 and 50 both fall inside. |
| Curve display | Load-elongation, elongation-time, time-elongation, stress-strain | The four plots the software can put out. The clip ends on the result screen rather than on a curve. |
| Data display | Maximum force, speed, sample information, strength in kPa, MPa, N/mm or N/mm2 | What each recorded row carries, and therefore what you can pull out of the batch afterwards. |
| Safety | Safety housing, E-stop, overload protection, upper and lower limit switches, load sensor with automatic retreat | The protection around the test area, and what stops the crosshead if a specimen or a setting goes wrong. |
The Settings in the Clip, and What Each One Decides
| Setting | In the clip | What it decides |
| Sample section | Rectangular | The section form the software uses to turn a force into a stress. |
| Sample thickness | 3.2 mm | One of the two dimensions of the section, used in both setups. |
| Sample width | 13 mm | The second dimension of the section, entered on the same row. |
| Gauge length, tension | 50 mm | The test length between the two clamping points, and the length elongation and strain are worked out against. |
| Bending span | 50 mm, set as 25 mm a side | The distance between the two supports, and so the bending moment the specimen sees for a given load. |
| Test speed, tension | 100 mm/min | How fast the crosshead moves, and the value the clip notes is already in the field by default. |
| Test speed, bending | 50 mm/min | Set on the same screen when the method is switched over to bending. |
| Fixtures | Tensile grips, then a bending set | The pair the specimen sits between. Swapping them is what turns the same frame from a tensile test into a bending test. |
What the Video Shows and What It Does Not
What it shows is the whole cycle twice over, on one machine, without a cut between the setups: the fixtures going on, the crosshead coming down by hand, the software screens where the sample, the speed, the method and the unit are entered, the test being started, and the screen the result lands on. If you are buying this class of machine, that sequence is the part a specification table cannot give you.
What it does not show matters just as much, and it is worth being plain about it:
▸ No test standard is stated anywhere in the clip, and no pass or fail criterion is applied to the result.
▸ The specimen material is not identified, and no curve is read out or interpreted on camera.
▸ No load cell capacity, accuracy figure or calibration record appears on screen at any point.
Those come from the published specification, from the procedure you work to, and from the documents that ship with the machine, rather than from a demonstration clip.
What to Confirm Before Ordering
▸ The tests you need: tension alone, or tension with compression, bending and shear, since that decides the frame and the fixture set you are buying.
▸ The force range: your peak load and your smallest reading, against the 10 T frame and the 2 T and 5 T options.
▸ The speed range: the rates your method calls for, against 0.1 to 300 mm/min, so they sit inside it rather than at the edge.
▸ The fixtures: grips for your specimen geometry and, if you bend, how wide a span range the bending set has to cover.
▸ The test space: specimen length plus fixtures, against 1100 mm vertical and 400 mm horizontal.
▸ The records: whether the TM 2101 reports carry what your quality system keeps, and which of the four curves you need.
What to Send With an Enquiry
▸ The material you are testing, and the shape and dimensions of the specimen.
▸ Which tests you need on one machine: tension, compression, bending, shear, peel or tear.
▸ The test method you work to, and the gauge length, span and speed it sets.
▸ Your maximum expected load, and the smallest load you need to read accurately.
▸ How many specimens you run per day, and whether results have to be exported into a report.
Frequently Asked Questions
Video Summary
In a little over seven minutes this clip works through two complete setups on one DR-L204 double column tensile testing machine. The tensile half covers fitting the grips, bringing the crosshead down by hand, measuring a 50 mm gauge length, entering a 3.2 mm thick sample, setting the speed and running the test. The bending half covers taking the tensile grips off, fitting the bending set, opening the supports out to a 50 mm span, switching the method and the speed, entering the sample again as a 13 by 3.2 mm rectangle, and jogging the loading edge down with the joystick before zeroing and starting.
What makes the clip worth watching is not any one figure but the whole path from a loose fixture to a recorded result, at the pace an operator would actually work at. The numbers on screen are the ones this operator chose for this sample; the sequence, and the published figures behind it, are what carry over to yours.
Need a DR-L204 or another double column frame?
Tell us the material, the dimensions of your specimen and the tests you need, and we will confirm the capacity, the load cell and the fixtures your work calls for through our contact page.
